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Despite brutal questioning by a Senate select committee, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday stood by his comments that the National Assembly’s budget for overhead is 25.4% of the nation’s total..

Mr Sanusi withstood strong attempts to browbeat him into admitting that the figures were at least lower than that, or that he was misquoted by the media.

The public hearing convened by the Senate followed newspaper publications quoting the Central Bank governor as saying that the nation spends one-quarter of its funds on running the National Assembly, and a subsequent publication quoting the finance minster as saying he would cut the budgetary allocation to the assembly.

Mr Sanusi had at a lecture delivered at the eighth convocation of the Igbinedion University , Okada, Edo State, said 25% of the nation’s resources are spent on the lawmakers. This annoyed the Senators who ordered him to appear before them and defend his statement.

The Central Bank governor appeared on Wednesday before the Senate committee alongside the finance minister, Olusegun Aganga. However, unlike the finance minister who quickly dissociated himself from the statement that he intended cutting allocation to the assembly, Mr. Sanusi admitted saying that 25.4% of the nation’s overhead cost is spent on the National Assembly...

He held his grounds, backing his statements with records from other national dailies which quoted him correctly, and with statistics from the budget office.

Mr. Aganga who later assumed the role of an umpire told the Senators that the CBN governor’s figures were correct although they may appear wrong in another context.

The minister argued that overhead cost figures which include Service Wide Votes (money spent on maintenance of government facilities), are as legitimate those which do not include the votes.

Rage

Evidently angry, Iyiola Omisore (PDP Osun State) who led the Senate panel alleged that the CBN governor had chosen to deliberately incite Nigerians against the Assembly. He asked Mr. Aganga to state categorically whether Mr. Sanusi’s statement was right or wrong. The minister again said the statement depends on context or the way one chooses to use statistics.

Members of the Senate panel made up of four different committees could not hold back their rage against the unyielding CBN governor and frequently compared him to the more amenable finance minister, trying to coax him into some form of apology.

The Senators made no effort to hide their bias and blatantly refused to give any room to the Central Bank governor, to defend his figures and the context in which they were used.

Mr. Omisore pointedly told the harassed CBN governor at one point that the committee was not prepared to listen to him and that he must direct his responses through the finance minister. Mr Sanusi, however, occasionally barged in to make the point that his figures were right and that he got them from the director of budget’s office.

No apology

He said he would only apologise if the figures from the budget office were wrong. He insisted that, “Total Federal Government Overhead is over N500 billion and the Overhead of the National Assembly is N136.2 billion. This is exactly 25.1 per cent of total government overhead. I am quoting from the figure I got from the Budget Office. If you like, you can invite the Director-General of the Budget Office.’’ When told by Mr. Omisore, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, that the figure was wrong following a clarification by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Sanusi replied: “I don’t know where the minister got his figures.” To the calls on him to apologise, he said, “By my nature, if I do not believe that I am wrong, I do not apologise.” He urged the Senators to examine the context under which he made his statement which was actually in a lecture about factors that fuel inflationary trends.

Staking his job

After hours of fruitless attempts to get the CBN governor to admit wrongdoing and apologise to the Senators, the lawmakers seemed to deviate from the matter and begin to question the character of the governor and the annual budget of the CBN.

“We really need to be sure that the CBN governor has the character to stay in that office,” Heineken Lokpobiri (PDP Bayelsa State) said.

Other Senators took turns to tongue lash the CBN governor. They accused him of speaking too much and asked him questions like “do you enjoy your job? Do you feel like quitting?’’ And if he thinks democracy is too expensive.

“My name is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (my name is) not Central Bank Governor. I enjoy my job but if you want me to quit, I will honourably quit,” Mr Sanusi replied before a cheering crowd of spectators.

The unwavering Central Bank governor told the Senators that the survival of democracy is dependent on allowing people the freedom to speak. He added that he had always been involved in the fight for democracy way back to the time of June 12 and that even if the military takes over now, he will still fight them off.

The issue remained unresolved as both sides disagreed with each other’s figures. However, Mr. Omisore gave the CBN governor a stern warning not to use such figures in comments about the National Assembly anymore.

Mr. Sanusi is also expected to appear before the entire House of Representatives today to defend his statement.

Barring any last minute changes, Lt. Gen. Aliyu Gusau rtd, will soon resign his position as National Security Adviser. His exit is to allow him prepare for his presidential campaign. His replacement is not yet known, but presidency sources reveals

that it will certainly not be Sunday Are, the deputy National Security Adviser.

Gasau, one of the most celebrated spymaster, is relying on no other requisite skill to rule Nigeria other than a prophecy given to him and three other friends about two decades ago by an Islamic cleric that all of them would rule country one after the other.

Sources close to the general revealed that an imam had told Gasau that himself, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, Gen Sani Abacha and Gen Ibrahim Babangida would head the Nigeria government in succession. For his three friends the prophecy came true as predicted. But the presidency thus far has eluded the spymaster.

His last attempt at the presidency was in 2007, when President Obasanjo sent Nuhu Ribadu led EFCC after major contender thus paving way for only pretenders..

Members of the House of Representatives cutting across the six geographical zones yesterday gave the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, seven days to resign, or be disgraced out of office.

The representatives who call themselves the ‘progressives,' said at a press conference in Abuja that Mr Bankole's leadership is corrupt, inept and high-handed. Armed with what they claimed were incriminating documents, the lawmakers said Mr Bankole's leadership led to an unprecedented rift between both arms of the National Assembly and brought the House to disrepute.

Members of the group include: Dino Melaye (PDP, Kogi); George Daika (PDP, Plateau); Bitrus Kaze (PDP, Plateau); Austin Nwachukwu (PDP, Imo); Ehiogie West Idahosa, Anas Adamu (PDP, Jigawa); and Independence Ogunewe (PDP, Imo). Others are Solomon Awhinawhi (PDP, Delta); Ralph Okeke (PDP, Anambra); Darlington Okereke (PDP, Ebonyi); and Asita Honourable (PDP, Rivers).

A litany of complaints

"We hereby, therefore, in strong terms call on Bankole to resign immediately as the speaker of the representatives within 7 days," said Mr Melaye, who spoke for the group. "We are asking him to resign for the following reasons: one, corruption in leadership; two, because of his leadership style, which today is responsible for the rift, disagreement, and disharmony between the two brothers in the National Assembly, the Senate and the Reps. The relationship between the two has never been this bad.

Three, we are also asking him to resign because of his high handedness, disrespect for members; four, his frequent breach of the rules of the House; five, his sweeping and unsubstantiated comments capable of causing disaffection among the various arms of government."

He said the speaker had once openly accused civil servants and the civil service of gross corruption, but failed to substantiate the claims when the then head of service, Ama Pepple, challenged him on the allegations.

"And I want to say that, failure to comply with our call in the interest of the Nigeria and Nigerians, especially the masses of this country, this group has overwhelming evidence, information, everything you see here, they are incriminating records that we will publish, give to you the media, and assure you in seven days, we are going to write a petition that every member including the ones on recess will sign, physically, personally and we will send it to the EFCC, the ICPC, the NSA, the SSS and indeed, the headquarters of his political party."

Bad publicity

Mr Melaye, said under the leadership of Mr Bankole, the sterling qualities, which the House exhibited since 1999, have been lost, stressing that the public perception of the lower chamber has declined.

"We are here this afternoon to unequivocally say without fear of favour, that the House of Representatives, you read about in 1999; the House of Representatives that West Idahosa was a member of; the House of Representatives in 2000; the House of Representatives with its sterling qualities exhibited during (Ghali) Na'Abba; the House of Representatives that was laboriously built by (Aminu) Masari, is not the same today," he said.

"The public perception of the House has ingloriously declined. We used to be the pacesetters of legislative practice in this country, but it is obvious that we have been overtaken because of the ineptitude of leadership (and) because of all these negative manifestations, the House under Bankole has nose-dived and has lost its earned positive reputation."

No child play

Asked if the group will not, like in the past, back down on its demand that Mr Bankole should go, Mr Melaye said, "This is no child play. We have resolved to clean our House. We have resolved and are determined that he who comes to equity must come with cleans hands. And we have resolved that these evidence will be given to each of you and we are ready to defend it anywhere and anytime.

This is not a secret presentation. We are very, very sure of the facts. These documents are incontrovertible."

He said even though Mr Bankole will as usual say that the documents are fake, they intend to challenge him to produce the original.

Collaborating Mr Melaye's claims, Mr Idahosa (PDP Edo state), said the House has never had it so bad in the last 10 years..

"Many of you know that when we talk about the history of the House, I have the privilege of writing the rules together with my colleagues in 1999," he said. "And thereafter, I have served (Salisu) Buhari, Na'Abba, Masari (Patricia) Etteh, and I will say, I have the misfortune of serving in this era. We have never had it so bad. We have never had such a legislative tyranny as we do have now. We have never in this House turned our Ethics and Privileges Committee into a hunting machine of fellow members.''

‘Ostrich display'

In a swift reaction to the demand for Mr Bankole's resignation, the House leadership said Mr Melaye and his group misled the perceptive public with their proverbial ‘ostrich display' by masquerading selfish tendencies for public interest.

"Their activities could best be a swan song but they are advised to avail themselves with the allowances of House rules and extant provisions of the relevant statues," said House spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, in the statement. "The present leadership is a creature and creation of the generality of the House and the prevalent synergy culminating in the successful constitution review vindicates the acceptability of the leadership. Those ‘progressives' should vacate their theatre or be absolved and come to join other discernible members to complement the current legislative engagements for executive action."

The Governor’s Forum, in a meeting with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday, said it does not want President Umaru Yar’Adua to resign.

The meeting, which held at the Aguda House, the residence of the Acting President, lasted for almost two hours, with all 36 state governors in attendance.

As they trooped into Mr Jonathan’s residence from the venue of an earlier meeting of the forum, their faces were bright and the banters were light, indicating that all was well. But when the governors left after their meeting with Mr Jonathan, they all looked grim, and a source close to one of the governors said the meeting had not been devoid of argument.

While briefing newsmen after the closed door meeting, the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, said the group did not discuss the hundred days of Mr Yar’adua’s absence and that the issue of his resignation was also not touched upon.

He said: “We did not discuss that. We noted that the president has returned to the country and we noted the need for him to recuperate and get better soon, before he can think of assuming duty. For us the issue of his resignation is not an option for now. For us what is important is for us to be compassionate, to be sympathetic and to realise that anybody, no matter highly placed, even if you are a Christian and you are a Pope can get ill. Thank God he is back now and he is recuperating and we are satisfied that recovery is on the way. We are praying for him.”

Governor of Kwara State and head of the Forum, Bukola Saraki also said “We congratulated the Acting President towards stabilizing the polity of the country at the moment and we also in return pledged our support to the Acting President during this trying time. We encouraged him and said he is doing a good job and he has the full support of the governor’s forum in this exercise.”

Akunyili went overboard

Mr Saraki said Mr Jonathan gave reasons why he set up the presidential advisory council. He, “educated us on a number of issues, for example the advisory council that was set up and the reason behind it and other things,” Mr Saraki said. “By and large, we emphasized the need for the government to work very hard to ensure that we all play our role to provide leadership at this crucial time and to talk to members of government to ensure that the comments made are well guided. At the end of the day we acknowledged what he is doing and we appreciated it and the 36 governors will continue to support the Acting President for this country to move forward.

“We have expressed that we are happy to see that the president is back in the country, we have also said that we should separate the two issues. The return of the president to the country is an indication that there is progress in his recovery process and that does not deviate at all from any decision we took as a forum, where we all decided that a political solution to provide a resolution for Mr. Vice President to act as the Acting president and that is still the position.

Mr. Vice President acting as the president is still running this country and we are wishing the president speedy recovery. Our resolution was taken not because Mr. President was out of the country, but because he was ill and that has not changed.”

Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Sylva however condemned the public statements making the rounds by public office holders. He picked issues with Information Minister, Dora Akunyili’s whom he said “went overboard” with her statements.